Techniques used by a teacher to teach include : (a) Lecture (b) Interactive…

Concept

A teaching technique is a planned procedure that the teacher designs, conducts and controls in order to bring about learning. The defining test is teacher agency during the activity: the teacher fixes the purpose and sequence, delivers or structures what happens, and steers the interaction while it is going on.

An activity that the learner initiates, paces and carries out independently, outside the teacher’s direct conduct, is classified instead as a learning or study activity. A teacher may recommend or assign such an activity, but recommending is not the same as conducting, so it is not counted among the techniques the teacher uses to teach.

Application

Apply the teacher-agency test to each of the four listed activities.

• Lecture: the teacher plans the content and delivers it as continuous oral exposition, controlling the pace and the sequence throughout the session. Teacher agency is present during the activity, so it is a technique used by the teacher to teach.

• Interactive lecture: the same exposition is deliberately broken by teacher-set questions, short tasks or polls so that learners respond during the session. The teacher still frames and conducts every segment, so teacher agency is present here as well.

• Group work: the teacher forms the groups, frames the task, sets the time, moves between the groups while they work and consolidates the outcome afterwards. The teacher’s structuring and supervision run through the whole activity, so teacher agency is present.

• Self study: the learner chooses the material, sets the pace and works without direct supervision, usually outside class hours. Teacher agency during the activity is absent, which makes it a learner-directed study activity rather than a technique the teacher uses to teach.

Cross-check

• Adding self study to the set would treat a learner-directed activity as teacher-conducted, which contradicts the wording of the stem, "techniques used by a teacher to teach".

• Dropping lecture from the set would exclude the most basic teacher-delivered method of instruction, which no standard classification of teaching techniques does.

• Dropping group work would exclude an activity that the teacher personally designs, times, monitors and debriefs, so teacher agency is clearly present in it.

• The official UGC NET June 2015 Paper I answer key marks the three-item code for this question, which matches the teacher-agency reading rather than a reading that counts every learning activity.

Conclusion

Items (a) Lecture, (b) Interactive lecture and (c) Group work satisfy the teacher-agency test, while (d) Self study does not. The correct code is therefore (a), (b) and (c).